"Lady Macbeth" Is a Psycho-Killer of a Costume Drama

| © Roadside Attractions

Florence Pugh gives one of the best performances of the year as a Victorian woman who takes drastic action after being sold into marital slavery.

Stark and brutal, William Oldroyd’s debut feature Lady Macbeth tells the story of a teenage bride kicking remorselessly against the pricks of patriarchal oppression. It could be regarded as a feminist parable—that’s if we refuse to condemn the psychopathic heroine’s vengeful reaction to being treated as property. Is killing in cold blood ever progressive?

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CentralAmerica

GORGEOUS GUATEMALA

Gorgeous Guatemala

5 days . Mini
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1. Guatemala

An express adventure for those with limited time off. Prepare yourself incredible experiences. You will hike a volcano, visit mayan temples and witness a ceremony and take in beautiful colonial Antigua.

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CentralAmerica

BEACHY BELIZE

Beachy Belize

5 days . Mini
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2. Belize

A quick trip not too far away for those seeking a relaxing mini break. You will have plenty of free time to relax but also some awesome activities to experience the rainforest and the caribbean sea.
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CentralAmerica

COLONIAL MEXICO

Colonial Mexico

5 days . Mini
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3. Mexico

An exciting mini trip exploring the lesser known colonial towns of central Mexico. This is hte perfect trip for someone with limited time off and still wants to turn on explorer mode and do something different.
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SouthAmerica

ADVENTUROUS ECUADOR

Adventurous Ecuador

8 days . Epic
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1. Ecuador

A remarkable 8 days adventure through the Andes and the Amazon rainforest. The best choice for adventure seekers wishing to visit the 2 most iconic areas of South America, in only 1 week and no flights.

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ANCIENT PERU

Ancient Peru

9 days . Epic
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2. Peru

An alternative itinerary to classic Peru, from Cusco to Arequipa. This itinerary is great combination of highlights Cusco and Machu Picchu with the lesser known Arequipa and Colca Canyon.
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Europe

SEDUCTIVE SOUTHERN ITALY

Seductive Southern Italy

10 days . Epic
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1. Italy

The ultimate Italian experience from the vibrant streets of Naples to the breathtaking sceneries of the Amalfi Coast followed by Matera and down to Puglia with its golden beaches, intense flavours and fascinating destinations.

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Europe

EDINBURGH AND THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS BY TRAIN

Edinburgh And The Scottish Highlands By Train

7 days . Culture
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2. Scotland

Embark on this great adventure starting from London all the way to Scotland with a true Scottish experience made of breathtaking sceneries, whisky tasting and ..lots of fun! Ideal for train lovers and explorers.
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COMPLETE PORTUGAL BY TRAIN

Complete Portugal By Train

8 days . Culture
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3. Portugal

A wonderful train journey around Portugal, from the romantic city of Porto to the Douro Valley, to the beautiful Aveiro all the way to Lisbon and Sintra. The perfect trip to train, culinary and culture lovers.
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Asia

SOULFUL SOUTH KOREA

Soulful South Korea

10 days . Epic
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Discover incredible temples, mountains and modern cities on this 10 day adventure. This trip is perfect for those seeking immersion in the cuisine, culture and natural wonders of South Korea.

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THAILAND, CAMBODIA & VIETNAM

Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam

11 days . Epic
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From Bankgok to Angkor Wat to Ho Chi Minh City and everything in between - adventure through the heart of South-East Asia. Taste the delights, see history brought to life and unwind on a Mekong River cruise.
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SECRETS OF SRI LANKA BY TRAIN

Secrets Of Sri Lanka By Train

10 days . Culture
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3. Sri Lanka

A fantastic adventure that showcases Sri Lanka's fantastic landscapes, wildlife and flavours. With 3 epic rail journeys, 3 UNESCO heritage sites and time to relax, this trip has loads to offer at a great price
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Africa

EPIC MOROCCO

Epic Morocco

11 days . Epic
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1. Morocco

An epic journey across Morocco: from Casablanca to Marrakech, through the blue city of Chefchaouen to the wonders of the desert and deep to the High Atlas Mountains - this trip has it all! Ideal for true explorers!

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ULTIMATE EGYPT

Ultimate Egypt

9 days . Epic
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2. Egypt

From Cairo to Aswan, this trip brings the land of the pharaohs to life. You'll visit the Pyramids, Valley of the Kings and Luxor Temple and cruise down the Nile in style. This is the perfect way to explore Egypt.
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IMMERSIVE KENYA

Immersive Kenya

8 days . Epic
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3. Kenya

An immersive blend of culture and wildlife for first time travelers to Africa. Learn about Nairobi, sample local coffee in the Aberdares and finish up with a fantastic safari stay in the Masai Mara.
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Brooding ambient noise

Adapted by playwright Alice Birch, from Nikolai Leskov’s ironically jaunty and elegant novella Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1865), the film moves the action from Oryol Oblast (southwest of Moscow) to rural north-eastern England; it discards altogether the original’s barbaric Siberian conclusion. The dialogue is as spare as the decor in the claustrophobic house where the action unfolds. Dan Jones’s score consists of a few swellings of brooding ambient noise.

Ready for sacrifice: Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth

The makeweight in a land transaction, teenage Katherine, tautly played by Florence Pugh, is a chattel. First seen in her bridal veil, she has been bought to provide an heir for her morose middle-aged husband, Alexander (Paul Hilton). To him and his father, Boris (Christopher Fairbank), she has the status of a sow.

The prisoner

Catherine enjoys the open air, but Alexander forbids her to go outside. She spends the days dozing on a sofa in one of her cramping dresses. Cinematographer Ari Wegner emphasizes Catherine’s entrapment by placing her at the center of symmetrical compositions, like a butterfly pinned in a display case. Anna (Naomi Ackie), the black maid who wakes Catherine each day and attends her, is her de facto prison warden.

A prisoner in all but name: Naomie Ackie and Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth

Himself forced into the marriage by the malign and despotic Boris, Alexander resents the girl’s presence in his home and won’t touch her. Though a hackneyed plot development reveals Alexander isn’t technically impotent, he is unmanned by Catherine’s bold sexual presence. When he wants to masturbate, he makes her stand naked on the far side of their bedroom and uses the sight of her naked behind for inspiration.

Animal hunger

She won’t be so easily effaced. After Alexander has left to deal with a problem at one of the family’s mills, Katherine takes into their bed a dark-skinned groomsman, Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis). He is hardly less couth than Alexander, but Catherine responds to his animal hunger for her. Spied on by Anna, the couple’s frantic rutting is soon common knowledge in the neighborhood.

Husband and chattel: Paul Hilton and Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth

After Boris has slapped Catherine and called her a whore, she calmly adds rat poison to his dinner. He is the first of three males to die directly by her hand; she is later the cause of another man’s impending death and also a woman’s. One of her victims is a child, Teddy (Anton Palmer), whom she had tended in what seemed to be a moment of softness.

The miracle is that Pugh’s performance elicits empathy for the character. The 21-year-old has the ungovernable force of Kate Winslet at the time of Jude (1996), Hideous Kinky (1998), and Holy Smoke (1999). Unlike Winslet, though, she makes no concessions to likability. Outside of horror films, few actresses make their name with such a concentrated study in villainy as Pugh does here. Don’t be surprised if she gets an Oscar nomination.

Lurch into evil

If Catherine seems to regret the child’s death, it is hinted that her sorrow is willed for appearances, not felt. Weaker than Catherine, Sebastian endures a Raskolnikov-like guilt for his part in two of the murders and blurts out the truth.

In contrast, Catherine is pitilessness. Her lurch into evil is not justifiable, but it’s understandable. It’s as if the effects on women of being tyrannized for millennia have collectively welled up in one of them, who has unleashed a micro-apocalypse.

Lovers: Florence Pugh and Cosmo Jarvis in Lady Macbeth

In a scene that would have been shocking were it not for Pugh’s matter-of-factness, Catherine responds to Alexander’s foully worded humiliation of her as an adulteress by pulling Sebastian from the adjoining room where he had been hiding. She then pulls him to the bed and start to have sex with him in front of Alexander.

Men undone

She’s not being sexually sadistic as much as making a point about freedom of choice. Alexander is symbolically emasculated by her act nonetheless. Sebastian’s falling passively in love with her effectively emasculates him: the woman not the man is the tamer.

Catherine’s ruthlessness makes her both the owner of the murderous thought, like Lady Macbeth, and the perpetrator of the deed, like Macbeth. Sigmund Freud’s suggestion that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth may be two parts of a single split personality is answered fully in Catherine.

A hint of androgyny: Florence Pugh as Catherine in Lady Macbeth

Andrzej Wajda’s Siberian Lady Macbeth (1962), which drew on the 1934 opera that Shostakovich based on Leskov’s story, initially quotes the terrible invocation made by Shakespeare’s regicidal Scottish noblewoman: “Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty.”

Cursed by her motherlessness, Lady Macbeth yearns to lose her femininity so she can do her worst. While Catherine is less unsexed than über-sexed—her right to bed whomever she wants seemingly more important to her than pleasure—her dour demeanor and tightly drawn-back hair sometimes give her an androgynous look.

Fatal flaw

However, unlike Lady Macbeth, whom Shakespeare identifies with the three witches, Catherine is not an unnatural woman. Nor does she want her groomsman to be “crowned king” after he has proved unworthy of her through his confession (the slavish devotion of the novella’s Katerina to her lover Sergei destroys her). Catherine is herself intent on ruling. She is also, we learn, carrying her own heir as a single-mother-to-be.

Where Catherine fails as a dynamic contemporary anti-heroine is in her merciless treatment of Anna, Teddy, and Sebastian, all of whom are black. If Andrea Arnold‘s analogous (but more lyrical) Wuthering Heights (2011) raised its black Heathcliff over the white Earnshaws and Lintons, Lady Macbeth gloomily maintains the racial status quo.

A white woman who has murdered her way into a higher social bracket than her own, Catherine has no qualms about participating in the race and class wars to maintain her position. Everyone is grist for her mill; it is irrelevant to her that Anna is a female sharer in oppression. Minus the staple of solidarity, a feminist critique of Lady Macbeth crumbles. As a reflection of the sick past in the cruel present, it glowers warningly—an instant classic.

Lady Macbeth opens in the United States on Friday.

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